Milan Vineyards - Toganga Triad - 2008

Por: lisa.s.kim | |

Creating wine - the dream can be accomplished at the Camarillo Custom Crush Winery in Ventura County. Imagine walking into this crushpad and discussing your vision for your ideal wine with the winemaker. He suggests where to purchase grapes and reviews the best process of barreling with you, and in months to a year, your wine is ready for bottling with your own custom label! Best of all, it's all done at this Winery for you.

What I admire about this crushpad is that it promotes wine created from local grapes (Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu, and Topanga Canyon). Many new wineries are using this venue to get their labels off the ground until they can afford their own locations for barreling.

As you walk in the the Crush Winery, you may taste a variety of wines that are produced here.

We came across the Milan Vineyards' Topanga Triad, which was inspiring, complex, and flavorful. 65% Syrah and 30% Grenache exudes a lot of fruit with a nice round-off of earthiness, provided by the 5% Mourvedre, to finish off the taste. At $18 a bottle, we purchased 2 because we knew it would not be conveniently, readily available elsewhere.

Our local wines need more maturing, promoting, and aging but I'm proud of the direction they're heading.